The uphill finish to Elmali had left a bad taste in his mouth, but Colombia-Coldeportes Carlos Julian Quintero’s Tour of Turkey is everything but over, and he showed it today in the 4th stage of the race, Fethiye – Marmaris (132 km), attacking with 4 more riders a dangerous attack in the finale, neutralized with 2 km to go the sprint win. Andrè Greipel(Lotto-Soudal). was one of the few sprinters to resist to the selection on the day’s climbs, and easily saw off Italians Daniele Colli (Nippo-Fantini) and Daniele Ratto (Unitedhealthcare).

Davide Rebellin (CCC-Sprandi) held on the GC lead, while Alex Cano (Colombia-Coldeportes) gained a position, and is now eight, 1.46 adrift. It was a quiet day for red jersey Juan Pablo Valencia, who easily saved his best climber’s jersey.

In spite of the short distance, the riders really had to work for an opportunity in the finale: Lotto-Soudal and MTN-Qhubeka tried to put pure sprinters – and Mark Cavendish in first place – at the foot on the day’s climbs, the last one coming with 10 km to go. They got what they wanted, as only 55 riders managed to sprint for the win.

After the early breakaway attempt was caught on the final climb, Carlos Julian Quintero started a move at the top of the climb, together with Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo), Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Lluis Mas (Caja Rural) and Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka). The quintet showed no fear on the very fast descent, and pushed hard to try to resist to the peloton’s comeback when they got back on flat terrain. Their attempt came up short, but it confirmed Quintero’s good condition: indeed, he looked the most brilliant among the attackers in the climbing section.

“After yesterday’s effort, Carlos was feeling much better today, and we opted to try a move in the finale," Sports Director Oscar Pellicioli explained. "We knew someone of the GC guys would have tried to attack, and he was ready to join the move. Cano had no trouble through the day, while our sprinters could not hold up on the climb: they had a small gap at the top of the climb, but the descent was so fast that it was impossible to recover. They will have another opportunity tomorrow.”

The fifth stage, Mugla-Pamukkale (160 km), presents a lumpy profile, but the road will mainly go down in the final 40 km, before a slightly uphill finish: there will be room for sprinters, as long as they will earn their opportunity.